Civic EG Hatch Speedometer Starts at 30 Miles per Hour

Civic speedometer technically works, but at rest it sits at 30 and the owner would like to fix that.

Honda Civic EG hatchbacks are all at or near 25 years old and with any car of that age, things are likely to fail. While flipping through the forum, we came across a thread where a Honda Tech member named “andypwnz”  is dealing with a problematic speedometer in his 1994 Civic hatch. It works, but it starts at 30 instead of 0, so he has come to the forum in search of a solution for this problem. At first, there wasn’t much response when the thread was started back in 2012, but after a seven year hiatus, someone found the thread and brought it back to life with new information.

Oddly, after seven years of other people dealing with gauge issues, this Civic hatchback thread was a whole lot more popular the second time around.

Civic Speedo Problem Introduction

When the OP first posted his question to the forum back in 2012, he provided the following information. He did not include any images, so we have brightened this post up with some stock Honda photos from the 1990s.

well i searched for about an hour and i got nothing here

basically my speedometer is at 0 when the key is out of the ignition, then when i put the key in and turn it the needle automatically goes up to 30mph.

then if i drive it just acts as if 30 was 0 so if I’m going 30 it says 60, 60 if it says 90, you know what i mean.

im guessing this is a problem with the gauge and not the sensor since it still figures the speed out, but i could be wrong on this. I’m no expert on speedometers lol

my initial idea was to take of the clear plastic over the cluster, turn the ignition so it goes up to 30, take the needle off and put it back on at 0mph

but if anyone knows of a fix to this or any ideas to help me figure this out, i appreciate it. Thanks

Back in 2012, the only person to reply was “Zeusfire69”, who provided the following input.

Sounds like the cluster to me…depending on what car you have (you should have listed it…), you can pick a used one up for pretty cheap. Just look around on craigslistor in the junkyard and you can get another one for 30-40 bucks.

Thread Reborn

After roughly seven and a half years “dmncj” reincarnated this thread when he ran into a similar issue with his own Civic.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/members/dmncj-999889268/

I’m all about bumping threads if it’s in my favor and I understand this is an old thread, so I’m not expecting any feedback, but it’s still available to read and reply. My 97’ Hx civic started doing this about 5 months ago and I’ve looked at all grounds and connectors. all are grounded and connected properly.

Today, I finally got time to diagnose and mess with the gauge cluster. This is what I found/ concluded:

With the key turned to the on position “not running” and both connectors are unplugged. The speedometer reads zero. I then connected the left and it stayed at zero. I then connected the top, it jumped to 30 mph. Then, I disconnected the top connector, but kept the left connector connected to the gauge cluster and it read zero. Vice versa still reads zero.

Turned the ignition “off” and gauge cluster reads zero.

I’ve read somewhere, I think civicforums.com that these gauge clusters have a sequence to self check the gauge cluster. Has anyone accomplished this task or can attest this actually works ? If so, can y’all explain the steps ?

Im about all out of ideas before heading to a junk yard and taking a chance of possibly getting another crapped out cluster. Thanks for your time and input.

“TomCat39” was the first to reply to that post and he had some good news.

I have not seen anything about self test. However, I have had 2 clusters that have had the boards on the back of the speedo go bad.

I just replace the board and that usually fixes it.

While “DaX” pointed out the age of the cars being discussed.

Like the ECU, these boards have electrolytic capacitors that go bad after ~25 years. I think these are typically the issue, and unless the electrolyte has leaked onto the board and corroded the traces, you can replace them. I doubt you can get new boards. I rebuilt the tachometer in my EG earlier this year.

And TomCat39 followed up with more information on the gauge clusters.

I am not sure if it was capacitor related. And you can’t get the board new. Doubt you could even get the full speedo new from Honda anymore. I’ve just pulled a board from my local salvage yard and paid the 5 bucks for it, or 3 bucks, whichever it was.

I think the chip might have gone bad on mine as the caps looked fine. But my issue was the speedo needle bounced around or would not work at all. Your problem might be a little different on the board. I still believe a board swap on the back of the speedo will be the fix and it will allow you to keep your odometer as it was unlike a full speedo swap.

If you have insight or information on replacing the circuit board for the EG Civic gauge cluster, or information on how to replace the entire cluster, click here to participate in this ancient thread.

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